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Tourmaline Patch Benefits & Herbal :

Master Chien : (US Practicing Massage License MAE#2902, MAT#11676)

THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF TOURMALINE

Many chronic illnesses can be linked directly to the overflow of toxins in the body. There is little that we can do to avoid coming into contact with these toxins; we are surrounded by environmental chemicals and many get directly into our diets. This often means that our bodies need to be cleansed in order to get it back into the best working order possible.

Proponents of tourmaline claim that it is a powerful natural detoxifier which can also relieve stress and anxiety while improving focus and mental alertness. It can also improve the body’s circulation while giving the immune system a well needed boost.

As well as its detoxifying effect on the body’s tissues and organs, proponents suggest that tourmaline can also have a powerful detoxifying effect on the body’s nervous system which has a variety of knock on benefits in terms of emotional wellbeing such as stress relief and ability to concentrate more effectively and for longer periods and may also help you to sleep better.

HOW DOES TOURMALINE WORK FOR YOUR HEALTH?

As we have already mentioned, tourmaline can produce negative ions, far infrared rays and alpha waves all of which can exert powerful healing properties on the body. Let us take a detailed look at how these three factors can help our body and mind.

1) NEGATIVE IONS

If you have ever stood near the base of a beautiful waterfall or relaxed in the vicinity of a natural spring, you may well have noticed how reinvigorated, refreshed and alive it makes you feel. You may experience similar feelings when you take a walk through the woods or just after a heavy dose of rain.

There is actually a good reason for these positive emotions and that is because of the abundant presence of negative ions.

In order to understand the beneficial effects of negative ions, it is perhaps easier to explain by noting the negative effects that positive ions can impart on our body. The high concentration of positive ions combined with a shortage of negative ions is linked to negative environmental conditions.

These conditions include daily pollutants like traffic fumes, pesticides, cigarette smoke, cell phones and power lines. Many of these pollutants are difficult to avoid in the modern day but they create positive ions which produce harmful free radicals that can cause cellular damage and ill health.

The negative ions produced by tourmaline helps convert the air’s moisture into beneficial negative ions which neutralizes the potential harm caused by those free radicals the positive ions create. Because of the high levels of negative ions that tourmaline produces, it may have similar healthy effects to those found in nature.

More and more of these positive effects are now coming to light including the following:

It can strengthen the immune systemTourmaline can regenerate cellsIt helps stabilize blood pressureIt can improve circulation by dilating the blood vesselsIt can purify the bloodIt reduces the pulse and improves cardiac function

2) FAR-INFRARED RAYS

Tourmaline also produces far-infrared rays but why are they important for our health? Well, according to experts these invisible waves of pure energy can penetrate the body very deeply getting beneath the muscles and tissues and right into the bones.

These rays also help improve blood flow and circulation by dilating the capillaries responsible for transporting blood around the body. This improves oxygenation, regenerates and cleanses the blood and helps detoxify the body’s organs. According to experts, this detoxification works at a very deep level and enables the toxins present in the blood to be effectively dissolved.

The warming therapy provided by the far-infrared rays has numerous beneficial effects on the body including the following:It promotes circulation and blood supply.It purifies the blood and helps to eliminate harmful toxins.It can reduce muscular spasms by warming the muscles.It improves metabolism.It helps to strengthen the immune system.It helps provide relief from anxiety and stress.It boosts energy and reduces fatigue.It regulates the nervous system and relieves nerve damage and pain.It helps promote a good night of sleep.

3) TOURMALINE PRODUCES ALPHA WAVES

Another reason that tourmaline is so beneficial to your health is its ability to generate alpha waves. This is important because according to experts the human brain can generate several energy waves that pulsate at differing frequencies.

Alpha waves in the brain are slow and research has demonstrated that when people are in an alpha state, their brains tend to receive more oxygen which in turn allows them to relax better and sleep more deeply.

Scientists from Japan and Germany found that tourmaline radiates an energy which precisely matches the alpha wave frequencies found in the brain. When people are exposed to this particular wave frequency, the human brain is able to enter its alpha state more readily. This has numerous benefits in terms of rest, sleep and emotional wellbeing.

These positive effects include the following:It helps strengthen the brain and improves intellect.It can help to improve focus and mental clarity.It can help slow down the aging process.It improves the body’s ability to heal.It reduces stress.It improves sleep patterns and quality of sleep.

SOME FUN FACTS ABOUT TOURMALINESome professional athletes have noted that their performances improved significantly after using tourmaline including the Olympic swimming champion from Sweden – Glen Christiansen. Christiansen claims that wearing a tourmaline necklace gave him strength and allowed his body to recover quicker following workouts.Tourmaline is said to have libido enhancing abilities. According to many people, it can increase sexual energy and desire in men (Glen Christiansen is a famous proponent).Women have also claimed that it improves their sexual energy.

Physical Benefits of Therapeutic Massage

Studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found massage beneficial in improving weight gain in HIV-exposed infants and facilitating recovery in patients who underwent abdominal surgery. At the University of Miami School of Medicine's Touch Research Institute, researchers have found that massage is helpful in decreasing blood pressure in people with hypertension, alleviating pain in migraine sufferers and improving alertness and performance in office workers.

An increasing number of research studies show massage reduces heart rate, lowers blood pressure, increases blood circulation and lymph flow, relaxes muscles, improves range of motion, and increases endorphins (enhancing medical treatment). Although therapeutic massage does not increase muscle strength, it can stimulate weak, inactive muscles and, thus, partially compensate for the lack of exercise and inactivity resulting from illness or injury. It also can hasten and lead to a more complete recovery from exercise or injury.

Research has verified that:

Office workers massaged regularly were more alert, performed better and were less stressed than those who weren't massaged.

AIM: To distinguish the component difference between two similar herbal formulas by pulse analysis method. Many Chinese herbs were found to have specific effects on the Fourier components of the blood pressure pulse; it might infer a specific blood redistribution process on the body and reflect the health conditions of specific organs or tissues. The pulse effect of an herbal formula was similar to the linear combination of all its herbal compositions. METHODS: Two different versions of the herbal formula Liu-Wei-Dihuang were fed to the Wistar rats as a single blind test. The blood pressure pulses on the rat tail artery were recorded and then transformed to the frequency domain by Fourier analyzer. RESULTS: Formula A, Bai-Wei-Dihuang, with two more herbsCortex Cinnamomi and RadixAconiti added to Liu-Wei-Dihuang, increased the harmonic proportion of the 1st harmonic (C1) but decreased C4, C5. Formula B is composed in the same way but without Rhizoma Batatatis and Poria cocos; it increased the DC of the pulse spectrum (C0), but decreased C2, C3, C4, C5, C6. CONCLUSION: The component adjustment of an herbal formula could be distinctly and quantitatively detected by pulse analysis method.

INTRODUCTION

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine has been developed for thousands of years and is still widely used for disease treatment as well as health care among Chinese. Lacking adequate scientific and systematic evaluation, the clinical effects of herbal medicine have largely been neglected or exaggerated.

Investigations on herbs include extraction of active components and tests of the effects of herbs on a number of physiological indices such as blood pressure, heart rate, hormone level, and so on[1-4]. These studies provided some useful aspects of the herbal effect, however, most of them hardly tell how an herb or an herbal formula functions as described in the Chinese medicine books.

We chose another approach to study Chinese medicine years ago. We found that many Chinese herbs including Rhizoma Coptidis, Panax ginseng, Ganoderma lucidum, Radix Paeonia Lactiforae, RadixAstragali, RadixAconiti, Rehmannia glutinosa, CortexEucom-miae, Cornus officinalis, Paeonia suffruticosa, Poria cocos[5-10], Tuber Pinelliae, RadixCodonopsitis,and Pericarpium Aurantii[11], all had specific effects on the Fourier components of the blood pressure pulse. More than ever, these effects could be divided into different frequency groups which were well correlated with the meridian related herbal classifications as described in traditional Chinese medical literature. For the kidney meridian related herbs, Rehmannia glutinosa, Cortex Eucommiae, Cornus officinalis, Paeonia suffruticosa, and Radix Achyranthis, the major C2 and C3 increasing together with C5, C6 and C7 decreasing effects were in common[9,11]. For the spleen meridian related herbs, Poria cocos, Tuber Pinelliae, Radix Codonopsitis, Pericarpium Aurantii, Rhizoma Polygonati, SemenLablab, Fructus Amomi Globosi, and Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae, they all had major C3 increasing effects[11]. For the lung meridian related herbs, Panax ginseng and American ginseng will both decrease C2 but increase C4[6]. Herbal formulas such as Xia-Jian-Zhon-Tang[7], Sie-Zie-Tang[8], Lui-Wei-Dihuang[9] were also studied. The collective effect of herbs in a formula was found to be mainly a linear additive effect on each harmonic of the individual effects of the main components.

Several lines of experimental evidence[12-17] strongly support the theory that the physical conditions of an organ or tissue (which might be the physical entity of the meridian) are related to specific Fourier components of the blood pressure pulse via their influence to the blood pressure wave propagation and thus the blood distribution to the body[18-22]. The variation of the physical conditions of an organ [such as clamping the artery to an organ) will be shown on the specific Fourier components of the blood pressure pulse spectrum[12-14,20]. The harmonic proportions will have a maximum decreasing effect at the 2nd harmonics if the renal artery were clamped, but the maximum decreasing effects will be at the 3rd harmonics if the splenic artery were clamped[12-14,20]. The pulse spectrums of the clinical patients with possible liver problems and chemical factory worker with abnormal blood test[16,17] indicated the liver-C1 relations; but the patients with acute uncomplicated myocardial infection indicated the heart-C0 [DC term of the pulse) relations[15]. Therefore, the pulse shape may reveal the status of the entire circulatory system in relation to the health condition. Any treatment that affects the condition of an organ or tissue will change the haemodynamic forces and therefore redistribute the blood supply[5,22]. This will show up as a variation of the corresponding harmonic, and could be detected by pulse analysis. The frequency-specific effect of herbal medicine is therefore indicated as a specific blood redistribution process on the body and may reflect the health conditions of specific organs or tissues as well. All the clues indicated that the C0 (DC term of the pulse) is related with the heart; the 1st harmonic is related with the liver (and the liver meridian); the 2nd harmonic is related with the kidney (and the kidney meridian); the 3rd for spleen, the 4th for lung, the 5th for stomach, the 6th for gall bladder, the 7th for bladder and so on.

As we know, Chinese doctors will usually change one or two herbal compositions of an origin herbal formula for different complex symptoms. These various compound prescriptions may keep part of the therapeutic effect of the origin formula but with some additional effects. For instance, Liu-Wei-Dihuang, a very popular six component construction herbal formula, is usually used to relieve the symptoms of some of the urinary and the sexual dysfunction as well as problems from the lower limbs. Nonetheless, Chinese doctors sometimes will prescribe "Gwei-Fu Bai-Wei-Dihuang" or "Zi-Bou Bai-Wei-Dihunag" for patients with different health status to improve the therapeutic effect of Liu-Wei-Dihuang. Each of the formula is composed by adding two more herbs in Liu-Wei-Dihuang. It is important to have an objective and quantifiable method to evaluate the effect of these formulas and to understand how exactly the effect varied with the change of the constituents in the prescribed herbs or drugs.

From our previous report[9], we have seen that Liu-Wei-Dihuang would increase the amplitude of the 2nd (C2) and the 3rd (C3) Fourier components of the blood pressure pulse spectrum but decrease the C4, C5 and C6. It can be asked whether pulse analysis is sufficiently sensitive to differentiate prescriptions in which one or two components are omitted.

In this report, two versions of Liu-Wei-Dihuang were studied in a single blind test. The sensitivity of the pulse analysis method was tested.

DISCUSSION

As we reported previously, Liu-Wei-Dihuang would significantly increase C2 and C3, but decrease C4, C5, C6, and C7[9]. It is inferred that Liu-Wei-Dihuang may increase the blood flow to the kidney (C2) and the spleen (C3) but decrease the blood flow to the higher resonance frequency organs and meridians, the lung (C4), the stomach (C5), the gall bladder (C6), and the bladder (C7). This inference is consistent with its therapeutic effects as described in the Chinese medicine books. The kidney and its related meridian are highly concerned with the healthy status of lower limb as well as the "Yin Qi". However, the stomach, the gall bladder, the bladder, and their related meridians are connected with the healthy status of the head as well as the "Yung Qi" [5,21]. Liu-Wei-Dihuang increased the blood flow to the kidney (C2) and the spleen (C3). This effect is emphasized on its tonic function. It may replenish the "Qi" in the "Yin" organs and revitalized the blood and is usually used to relieve the symptoms of the lower limbs[5,21].

The composition differences between formulas A and Liu-Wei-Dihuang are shown in Fig 1 and Fig 3. Formula A increased C0, but lowered the increasing effect on C2 and C3 of Liu-Wei-Dihuang. It may be less potent to push blood flow to the kidney (C2) and spleen (C3) with higher heart load (C0) than Liu-Wei-Dihuang. The two more herbsCortex Cinnamomi and RadixAconiti in formula A are fully responsible for the difference. Cortex Cinnamomi may increase C1 but decrease C2, C3 (Data was not reported). Radix Aconitias a heart strengthens helps the heart work properly under the larger heart load[8]. The C1 increasing effect of Liu-Wei-Dihuang may reach the maximum in normal physiological range; there was no further increasing for formula A or formula B. Formula A, as the well-known Ba-Wei-Dihuang, it was prescribed for patients with weak fire (lower C1 together with weak heart). Compared with Liu-Wei-Dihuang, it helps push more "Qi" to the "Yung" organs instead of replenishing all of the "Qi" into the "Yin" organs (lower C2, C3, higher C5, C6, C7). Since the liver meridian and the bladder meridian are intercrossed around the prostate, formula A, with its increasing effect on the blood flow to the liver meridian (C1) together with the higher bladder meridian flow (C7), may contribute to the therapeutic effect on prostate function as well as the sex function on some extend.

Looking into Fig 2 and Fig 4, formula B was similar to formula A but decreased even more C2 and C3 and increased more C0. Formula B is composed in the same way as formula A but without Rhizoma Batatatis and Poria cocos. Without these two C2, C3 increasing herb[9], the amplitudes of the 2nd and 3rd harmonics were further reduced.

Formula B is a new product with much higher producing ratio and pushes even more "Qi" to the "Yung" organs (higher harmonics) than formula A does. Nonetheless, it pays with much lower potency of replenishing the "Qi" in the "Yin" organs and the tonic function to "Yin" is further reduced. Formula B may be more potent in helping sex function and prostate problems, however, it causes higher heart load (C0) and lower lung (C4) blood supply therefore has to be used only for patients with very healthy heart and lung functions. The detailed physiological changes of the rat body beyond the blood distributions may be very complicate, the inferences here are only the herbal effects on the blood redistribution.

All three herbal formulas decrease C4, C5, C6, however formula A and formula B have higher value of C5, C6 than Liu-Wei-Dihuang from roughly estimation. This tendency should be considered together with the different dose usage and the different producing ratios of these formulas. The producing ratio of formula A was 25 %, however without Rhizoma Batatatis and Poria cocos, the producing ratio of formula B was increased to 62.5%. There could be some other herbal components conjugated together with the polysaccharides of Rhizoma Batatatis and Poria cocos had been removed in the producing procedure of formula A. This could decline our inference to a certain extent; the pulse spectrum effect of formula B on C0 and C1 may be modified.

Similar pulse spectrum effects may come from various physiological origins. From the blood pressure wave propagation equation we derived[18,19], any changes such as the ways of the heart output, the property of blood vessels or even the viscosity of the blood, which influence the organ-main artery coupling conditions may all change the frequency characteristics of the vascular system. We found that the meridian related herbs were classified according to their effects on the frequency characteristics. The tonic kidney meridian related herbs are all having the similar pulse spectrum effect, the large C2 increasing effects with minor differences on other harmonics; they push more blood to nourish and therefore to enhance the healthy condition of the kidney and the kidney meridian. The spleen meridian related herb are all having large C3 increasing effects and push more blood to the spleen and the spleen meridian. Therefore, the pulse spectrum effect is not unique; two different herbs may both improve the health condition of the same organ and have very similar pulse spectrum effect but may be via completely different physiology mechanism. We may replace one component in an herbal formula by another herb (or by several herbs together) and having similar spectrum effect as well as similar therapeutic effect too. How to improve the "qi"(the pressure pulse) and the "blood" (the nourishment in the blood) is the central principle for Chinese medicine. A quantitative and scientific measurement of this principle is our goal. This study indicates that the herbal formula prescription is a delicate blood redistribution work, which may study from the pulse spectrum variation curves. If the heart output is the same, different herbal formulas simply redistribute blood to different places of the body. We adjusted the ratio of herbal components to make the linear combination of their effects on pulse to be the wanted way. We may first study one's pulse spectrum knowing his healthy status and then prescribe the right herbal formula to overcome the unhealthy inclination by redistributing more blood to the insufficient places. The pulse analysis method makes the quantitatively fine adjustment of herbal formula be possible.

The herbal effects on the pressure pulse were frequency specific and linear additively; the pulse effect of an herbal formula was an adding up of all its compositions accordingly.

As we have mentioned above, the herbal effects could be divided into different frequency groups, which were well correlated with the meridian related herbal classifications as described in traditional Chinese medical literature. Since the variation of the physical conditions of an organ or a group of tissue will be shown on the specific Fourier components of the blood pressure pulse spectrum[12-14,20-21], the pulse spectrum may reveal the health status of the entire circulatory system. It interlocks the frequency classified herbal effects with the health condition of the body. Therefore, We may further infer how the pulse effect will be influenced if a formula is changed somewhat and evaluate its health benefit accordingly.

This pulse analysis method can quantify the herbal effect and is closely related to fundamental Chinese medical theory; it helps herbal formulation be much reasonable and easier and makes the evaluation of clinical Chinese medicine therapy be possible. The therapeutic effect could be quantified and the obscure syndrome descriptions in Chinese medicine could be turn into clear modern scientific words.